I had no particular problems with IE, probably because I had used pretty much nothing else. I had occasionally used Netscape Navigator, but I didn’t feel the need to download and install it. When my friend recommended Firefox, again I found no inclination to use it.
But I guess IE chose that moment to start crashing on me and I decided to give it a try. I was extremely happy with it once I started to use it. So much so that, its now my default browser and I hardly ever use IE. I will try my best to give a good account of its working and features.
Compatibility and Installation
In today’s super-fast interfacing technology age, its impossible to survive without compatibility over various platforms. This is true with Firefox too....Its compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. Its completely free of cost and very easy to install. However, I highly recommend installing extensions once you install the browser, as these extensions are what you will need to view all kinds of pages(like shockwave, etc).Besides, these extensions is what makes Firefox so special.
Features
The browser itself is very similar to IE. I guess this is also because they didn’t want it to be so different that it became undesirable. It has pop-up blocking(so does IE if you have SP2 installed). However, it does have some really cool features like multiple windows in a single browser window, so you don’t have to keep collecting them on ur taskbar. RSS Reader is another really cool feature, which delivers updates and blogs to your subscribed sites. Once you have some of the extensions installed, you can make your browser super cool with adblocking on sites.....by just right-clicking on the ad banner and chosing to block it. Firefox keeps a log of these so next time you browse the site, the banner is blocked. There are so many other cool extensions, it will take me pages to discuss them, so I will leave the exploration to you
Security and support
Firefox is wayyyyyyyy more secure than IE, which is prone to a lot of security issues. I am not maligning it, but I have to say Firefox is said to be more secure(When I was visiting India last month, my home pc got 3 virus attacks in 2 days with IE and once I used Firefox, I had none) Support for regular users like us is available in plenty on Mozilla site and on numerous opensource forums.You will just about find answers to every problem you have. Overall, Firefox is definitely a good switch from IE and I highly recommend it.